American national government can more effectively serve the public by systematically opening its activities via social media. Politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups increasingly use social media--but primarily as a means of maintaining their current privileges. Instead, social media and its norms should be comprehensively imported into the federal government with the explicit goal of increasing citizen engagement and returning power to the people. The approach could be a new "Bill of Rights," via legislation and/or a citizen-based initiative to outline principles for social media, such as a presumption of transparency in all government activities. The resulting 21st-century leadership, management and communication practices will give new life to the vision of America's 18th-century founders.

Problem

The enduring, endemic, foundational problem in contemporary American politics is not simply toxic partisanship in Washington. The fundamental issues are leadership philosophy and management practice: Should government serve itself or serve the citizenry?

In our time of radical transparency and innovation in other sectors, the work of government remains a conspicuous outlier. The recent enactment of federal health insurance reform, and now its implementation, provides a case in point. The legislation was drafted with little citizen input, in a “behind closed doors” bargaining process of politicians, bureaucrats and interest group representatives. The redesign of a massive sector of the American economy was passed by the U.S. House and Senate outside of customary committee review, much less public debate and deliberation. Many—likely most—members offer no pretense of having read much less evaluated the entirety of this consequential legislation.

Accountability was the first casualty as the new health care regime was midwifed.

Implementation, beginning in the federal regulatory process, has been regrettably reliant on the participation of political insiders, additionally shrouded within the heretofore undisclosed, unprecedented, byzantine complexity of the new statute. Politically connected organizations have sought and received exemptions from the law—including many organizations that publicly supported its passage. Even the exemption process is opaque.

It would be wrong to view these dysfunctions solely as a partisan matter. It is notable that proposals to repeal and replace the new health insurance legislation have also been conceived and drafted in Washington, in reliance on politicians and interest group representatives.

Not surprisingly, public opinion polls have indicated disaffection from the legislation and the political process that birthed it. At the same historical moment that individuals are extraordinarily empowered as consumers, our power as citizens is conspicuously diminished.

Mancur Olson, in his classic work, The Rise and Decline of Nations, identified the accretion of “distributional coalitions” of government and special interests as a mortal threat to ongoing national vitality. Social media, effectively utilized, holds the promise of citizens reclaiming our rightful authority and power, displacing such self-serving intermediaries.

Solution

The ethos of social media is rooted in accountability, transparency, engagement and trust – four characteristics woefully lacking in our current political and government processes.

Social media can empower us, casting disinfecting light onto the all-too-often hidden agendas of partisan politics, empire-building bureaucrats, and corrupt special interests. Information is power--and, more than in any previous time in history, information and power can be shared far beyond elites.

Extraordinary, disruptive innovation, accountability and citizen involvement can be achieved by enacting a statutory presumption that all activities of all three branches of the federal government shall be opened to social media. Exemptions will have to be justified and identified, shifting the burden of expectations of all concerned. Transparency can move from lip service to reality. Leveraging the biggest platform with the broadest demographic, at the speed of digital, can result in a massive transfer of power from politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups to we, the people.

Practical Impact

Imagine: citizens driving real change--rather than passively responding to the morsels of "change" offered up by the passing parade of conventional politicians in evanescent sound bites.

All too often in today’s Washington, monumental problems are little more than political footballs to be batted around for personal gain. Imagine a new Washington, where solutions to our nation’s problems are sought via crowd-sourcing on social networks, from across the nation and around the world. Imagine moving from endless "debates" scripted by partisans and interest groups, to an ongoing process of disruptive innovation, fostering and fostered by an ever-increasing cycle of engaged citizenship in the best American tradition. This kind of 21st century leadership might appear novel compared to the second half of the 20th century--but would surely be recognizable to those from earlier times, such as Jefferson and Madison, Tocqueville and Emerson.

A presumption of transparency is an indispensable first step of a social media revolution. Today, even the most basic information is often cloaked purposefully or hidden indirectly within government, rendering it impracticable for citizens to locate, much less aggregate into an actionable format. An egregious example is the resistance to providing information on public pensions in many jurisdictions. There is no reason such information cannot be made readily available to citizens on their laptops—and to anyone in the world who might have information or ideas which could serve the public interest in any given context.

As social media is woven into the fabric of the political process, government officials will be forced to justify their actions to constituents--indeed, to the world--rather than routinely rationalize their actions (and inaction) among themselves and their interest group patrons. We know from sad experience that simply asking politicians to hold themselves accountable is a fool's errand. Bringing social media into government operations can ensure that accountability will take place daily, in real time, via social media--not just on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years.

First Steps

The first step will be to enact a government wide social media mandate. Its ultimate source of authority is the foundational principle of our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: all government power is derived from the consent of the people. The mandate would include a presumption of 100% social media participation, governed by a comprehensive social media policy to which all branches of the federal government would be bound.

At the federal level, this could be initiated with legislative proposals and hearings which themselves examine these issues using social media. It would also be possible for a state to make itself a laboratory, through a combination of legislation, executive orders, and/or ballot initiatives.

Representative examples of core covenants of a social media policy could include:

A first step could be a new "Bill of Rights," declaring first principles, such as a presumption of transparency for all government activities.

Such a "Bill of Rights" could be created by legislation and/or by citizen initiative.

Henceforth, information on all public programs and spending would be made easy to access and immediately available to citizens on the Internet.

Henceforth, all legislative and regulatory proposals would be made available for public review and comment on the Internet. A unified website would be offered so that such proposals could be located by any citizen in an easy-to-access format, intended to convey and receive actionable information.

Henceforth, legislation and regulation would be required to be posted for specified periods, to ensure meaningful participation. Legislation or regulation failing to meet such requirements would be publicly tagged for additional public notice, input and reconsideration.

Henceforth, public input and suggestions would be made available in a shared, common format for others to comment on or add to.

Henceforth, curation and other involvement would encouraged for non-governmental, third-party entities along wiki lines.

Initial areas for testing of extensive social media norms could be established, such as health care and budgetary reform.

Credits

Special thanks to Mike Myatt, the noted leadership authority. The specified format of this presentation does not adequately convey his co-authorship.

A thoughtful and meaty post. I hope people take the time to read it carefully and consider what you are proposing. I agree that inherent in social media are principles of transparency and engagement. When it's not used for those purposes, it's a waste of time and resources because it gets little attention.

Currently and historically, transparency has not been an underlying principle of the US government. But times have changed. And the old ways are not working anymore. It's time to re-examine our fundamental principles.

I agree with your analysis of the problem. The solution is not simple, but that does not mean we should shy away from looking for one. We can learn some lessons from places where social media is being used effectively to listen and learn as well as respond and engage. There are some companies whose experiments we can learn from (e.g. Best Buy and CISCO).

As social media is in its infancy, I agree with your response to Shawn Murphy that the specifics can be sorted out in the process of moving forward. I like what you are proposing, especially your Bill of Rights. I'm not sure about creating a regulatory framework around it. That idea seems at odds with the free-wheeling nature. Could it be that this is also an old way of thinking? Consensus and accountability might naturally arise as a result of a well thought-out implementation of the underlying principles of social media: transparency, dialogue and involvement.

James and Mike, thank you for writing a thought-provoking piece and providing an excellent beginning to a powerful conversation that I hope continues.

I share your wariness of a regulatory framework. We know that regulations can be abused, made to serve the status quo or even specific interests. We also know that many government officials, using social media essentially as an additional arm of broadcasting, would claim, however unconvincingly, that they're already using social media effectively.

For such reasons, the hack refers to third-party curation as potentially significant. Perhaps private or NGO entities can be encouraged to step forward, earning authoritative roles in curating information to and from the government. The ultimate response could include hybrid entities.

The key at the start, it seems to me, is to set the principles. From there, there are many ways this could flow--doubtless many innovative ways that no one person could conceive or implement. Truly a place for outside-in, bottom-up approaches.

I share your wariness of a regulatory framework. We know that regulations can be abused, made to serve the status quo or even specific interests. We also know that many government officials, using social media essentially as an additional arm of broadcasting, would claim, however unconvincingly, that they're already using social media effectively.

For such reasons, the hack refers to third-party curation as potentially significant. Perhaps private or NGO entities can be encouraged to step forward, earning authoritative roles in curating information to and from the government. The ultimate response could include hybrid entities.

The key at the start, it seems to me, is to set the principles. From there, there are many ways this could flow--doubtless many innovative ways that no one person could conceive or implement. Truly a place for outside-in, bottom-up approaches.

Our Federal and State (at least in California) leaders have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with the power they already have, and need to monitored.

Utilizing social networking, as you suggest, as a way of keeping our leaders within the boundaries set by our Constitution and Declaration of Independence is an excellent idea.

I am reminded of the following well-known saying of Ronald Reagan's:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

Many thanks, Kevin, for sharing your excellent thoughts. The fact that the government officials need to be monitored, as you say, is key--and demonstrates why the most important step may be to establish the principle. A sort of 'bill of rights' for social media. The details of how it wil be done will evolve with technology and innovation that will itself transform the social media tools on an ongoing basis.

Thanks so much, John. Great reminder that the Arab Spring illustrates some early uses of social media against entrenched political power. Now if we can just apply such daring here in the USA, the world's greatest experiment in democracy.... :-)

James, first I must comment on the manner in which you and Mike present your hack. You've rooted your perspective in relevant and fundamental principals on which our country was built. And with a keen eye you both plucked out the significance and impact of current trends and events in America (and globally) that could strengthen and restore our belief in our country's governmental effectiveness. Consequently, you've elevated your suggestions to a compelling level that needs to be seriously considered, along with the ramifications and systems needed to make it all stick.

I'd love to see you tease out how the people would enforce adherence to the mandate. I also worry, unfortunately, that so much noise from citizens would crowd out progress and the outcomes social media causes. To counter my own concern, the noise could be loud at first and level out. A thoughtful, adaptable plan to address this potential scenario would need to be in the waiting.

What an eloquent and useful solution to return the People's work to the People.

Many thanks Shawn for your excellent comments. On the specific point of how the "noise" would be sorted out, perhaps that itself will be enabled by having public input into consideration of alternative pathways for information and decisionmaking. In my view, to attempt to define that in advance would go against the very kind of bottom-up, outside-in leadership approach we're striving for today. Thanks again.

A forward looking contribution. I agree with the problem identification and the main premise. In the current political environment any federal mandate will encounter stiff resistance, however. I would welcome a follow-up article delineating how to overcome this hurdle.

Thanks very much Francisco. Excellent point on resistance. Perhaps that could be a good focus of social media, gathering ideas for how to frame the issue in various fora, and how to affect the political process.

As originally designed, our system of government was supposed to address the problem of leader’s natural tendency to slide into self-serving behaviors. But as time goes on we have also seen our creativity put to use in working around the original intent of the framers of the constitution. As a result, there is, as you point out, very little accountability.

If social media could be used to generate some accountability and better representation of the people each public servant is to represent, it would no doubt help to relive the rampant self-serving behaviors we see today. The transparency it offers may also go a long way to help mitigate the unproductive and self-serving “If I can make you look bad then I must be better” approach that is so common in politics today.

The proposal seems like a good way to help address the accountability problem, that for too long has gone unchecked.

Thanks very much Michael. Such an excellent point you emphasize: our nation's founders' concerns about self-serving behavior by politicians. That's built into the separation of powers and other notions. Wouldn't it be great if our 21st century technologies brought us back to our 18th century vision!

Thanks so much Kevin and Mike for your terrific comments, plus each of your leadership on these issues.

Now if we can begin to coalesce using social media, and locate some legislative sponsors in Washington, D.C. (or in a state, either be legislation or a ballot initiative), things can really start to move....

James and Mike, thanks for the thoughtful post. It would be wonderful if members of government listened. It would be great if government spent more energy and money trying to find out rather than simply trying to count the crowd. It would be ideal if we could get members of government to seek first to understand. That would indeed be good.

You both are already part of that revolution. We can't make government listen more quickly than by listening. We can't make them care any more except by caring. There is no "they" who we can get to institute something like this. As we authentically engage in the new public forums we provide a "real-thing" against which the others can be compared. It will take time, but it is happening.

My only concern is, we may no longer have any interest in real-leadership. We're so shallow and celebrity-focused as a human race that we seem to lack the depth to care and the appreciation of others to listen. I hope with you that social media will help inspire a change in the way government works.

This is a welll thought out piece. It gives us all lots to think about. As both a leadership writer and fairly active participant in social media, it gives me pause. As a reader of American history, I think the points made here, and suggestions raised would make snese to Jefferson, Emerson, et al. thanks for writing this, and giving all of us something to think about.